"The discovery of a new dish confers more happiness on humanity than the discovery of a new star," wrote Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, a French lawyer and politician who is better known as an epicure and author of "The Physiology of Taste" (1825).

In the book, the 19th century gastronome discourses elaborately on the pleasures of the table, which he considers a science, and cooking as an art.

"Cooking is one of the oldest arts and one that has rendered us the most important service in civic life," he says. "The pleasure of the table belongs to all ages, to all conditions, to all countries, and to all areas; it mingles with all other pleasures, and remains at last to console us for their departure."

His philosophy seems to be seeing the light these days as people's interest in gastronomy has grown in line with the increasing number of TV cooking shows. As much as people started caring about "what" and "how" to eat, it seems time to step back and ruminate on the meaning of eating and cooking and what significance they hold in our lives.

Upon the visit of Michelin-star chefs gathering in Seoul to participate in a Culinary Art event at the JW Marriott Seoul last month, W grabbed the opportunity to ask them what eating and cooking meant to them.

A commonality found in the words of the chefs was that eating meant more than survival and cooking went beyond commercial activity.

"To eat means to learn, to cook means to live," said Artur Martinez, a Spanish chef who reached head chef at Madrid's VIPS restaurant at the age of 24 and opened his own restaurant Capritx which received one Michelin star in 2010.

A devotee of the slow food movement, he uses fresh local ingredients from local producers.

"Eating is something that satisfies your heart, and brings back memories, happiness and certain level of comfort," said Andres Lara, pastry chef and technical advisor at the Japanese branch of French chocolate academy Barry Callebaut. He was trained in world-renowned restaurants such as Noma in Copenhagen, Bagatelle in New York, and El Bulli in Spain. He was also the head patissier at Michelin-starred restaurant Pollen in Singapore.

"Cooking satisfies more your intellect ― it's a day to day activity of constantly improving, learning and reaching for excellence that you may not get to."

For Takagi Kazuo, a Japanese chef who runs two Michelin-awarded restaurants in Japan, eating provides personal satisfaction while cooking does the same for everyone.

"When I'm eating, it's fun, but when I'm cooking, I can give fun to everybody," he said.

His restaurant Kyoryori Takagi in Osaka, Japan, received two Michelin stars in 2010 while his second restaurant Kouzitu, opened in 2013, was awarded one star. His dishes reflect the changing seasons of the Kyoto region.

"I'm very happy to be doing what I love to do. Cooking is my profession, but at the same time, the working time is my pastime."

Shaun Hergatt

Shaun Hergatt, an Australian chef with two Michelin star restaurants in New York, interpreted cooking and eating in a social and cultural perspective.

"Cooking is one of those things that makes lifetime memories for me," said Hergatt, who owns SHO, a restaurant with two Michelin stars, which opened in 2009, and the one Michelin star restaurant Juni, which opened in 2013.

"Eating is a strong emotional basis of human being that connects you not only with food but with something cultural about family, ethnicity and the locality of where you've grown up," he said.

"Especially when you travel and eat, it becomes a bridge between relationships and different types of people ― and that's very important. It becomes a lifestyle and something important on a global basis."